


Little Lion Man

by GabrielTheWarlock



Series: A Touch of Void (He Walks Among Us) [1]
Category: Dishonored (Video Games), 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Background Character Death, Bakugou Katsuki is Kinder Than Canon, But for Dishonored Canon, Canon-Typical Violence, Dead Midoriya Inko, Gen, I'm Bad At Summaries, Implied/Referenced Character Death, In Small Doses, It is complicated, Mark of the Outsider (Dishonored), Midoriya Izuku Does Not Have One for All Quirk, Midoriya Izuku Has Misophonia, Midoriya Izuku Has a Quirk, Midoriya Izuku is Misophonic, Minor Character Death, Minor Original Character(s), My Hero Academia Spoilers, Or At Least Sort of Orphan, Orphan Midoriya Izuku, Overseer!Mineta, Satou Rikido is in Class 1-B, Shinsou Hitoshi Replaces Mineta Minoru, Shinsou Hitoshi is in Class 1-A, The Eyeless (Dishonored), Tsunotori Pony Replaces Sato Rikido, Tsunotori Pony is in Class 1-A, Uraraka Ochako Has One for All Quirk
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-25
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-03-17 12:31:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 14,705
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18965296
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GabrielTheWarlock/pseuds/GabrielTheWarlock
Summary: There are many things which lurk in the shadows, which seek to bring balance to this skewed world.  The Abbey seeks to wipe them all out, to bring about balance in a clean and uniform fashion.  Heroes who bring villains to justice, and Overseers who take care of the heretics.  The Outsider, seeing this and more, seeks to find those who could make everything as whole as he can.  It isn't his fault if those he marks use it for the wrong reasons, just like it isn't the fault of Quirks that some people turn into villains.Nothing is perfect, but Midoriya Izuku is sure going to try to become a great hero regardless of whether or not he has to use the gifts the Outsider gave him.Life is unfair, but Uraraka Ochaco refuses to let that prevent her from seeing her family well off and if she has to accept stored power and defeat a cruel man than so be it.Fate draws a heavy hand as it pushes these kids to become more than they ever believed they would be.





	1. The Eyeless

**Author's Note:**

> This was made because the idea of Ochaco having OfA was cool to me, and I also really wanted to write a Dishonored kinda crossover. While not necessarily the latter, I fell in love with this while plotting it out.

She isn’t sure how it happened but she actively finds herself trapped between a rock and a hard place. Ochaco had been trying to make it to the subway station quickly, as it was growing dark, but somewhere along the line she had been snatched off the street and thrown onto the floor in this alleyway.

Around her, a few people stand and visible on their necks, foreheads, and arms, is a strange tattoo of what is with what appears to be a T on the top of an upside down triangle, the top of it curved and set down slightly. Each of them holds a sword, and they seem to be focusing on one who is drawing a different form of their tattoo on the ground near her. The one drawing is the only one without any visible tattoos, instead wearing a full body suit with a face covering mask, made of what seems to be a blindfold and a ragged old towel hastily sewn together.

Despite their apparent fixation on the symbol being drawn on the floor a few of her captors aren’t watching the drawing, one keeps an eye on the alley, and another watches Ochaco, their eyes seem to bore into her as she attempts to at least shimmy into a less cramped position. As she moves their sword swings down and hits the wall right next to her.

“Stop moving, it won’t make any difference for you either way. Might as well see things from the lowest perspective before the end. As He did.” they snap, their once cold gaze turning cruel and almost burning as she stops moving.

“Sorry,” Ochaco whispers, freezing up and turning to look back at what is being drawn. The rest of the triangle symbol is done and now it seems as if the head one is adding a few additional lines to the edges before moving on to drawing a complicated mark in the center.

Something about the final mark seems almost wrong, she can’t see the full thing, but it is too jagged at points to fit nicely within the circle. It strikes her that these people might be the Eyeless, or some other gang dedicated to the Outsider, as the head one stands upright and she gets to see the symbol in its full form. A circle, open at three points with a smaller circle inside, and with lines darting through the larger one, connecting to the circle. Her vision tunnels momentarily as she recognizes the Outsider’s Mark.

“You’re sure Siren was right about using an innocent for this, right Rags? I don’t want to mess up our chance of seeing Him. Or that this is even the right symbol?” One of the few watching the drawing of the symbol asks, she glances up towards the alley entrance as the sound of heavy footfalls becomes noticeable. But no one appears.

“Of course I’m sure, what reason would I have to lie?” Rags, says, standing to their full height. “It’s not as if I’ve given you any reason to doubt me. Have I?”

The woman stands upright, her eyes narrowing at a point Ochaco cannot see, before her sword slams into Rags’ abdomen. They stagger backward, and fall over Ochaco as the sword is ripped free. The woman looks down at him as a shadow slips into the front of the alley, only noticed it seems, by Ochaco. “There’s only one Rags, and he would know the proper way to prepare the ceremony. Who are you really?”

The mask is torn off the wounded man’s face, or at least off their head. Beneath the mask is another mask. That of an Overseer, before he is yanked up and slammed into the wall by the woman.

“One of High Overseer Kan’s little lapdogs?” She hisses, and a set of serpentine fangs becomes much more prominent in her mouth. “Well, perhaps he needs to learn the Eyeless are not to be trifled with.” Her sword is raised again before it cleanly slices through his neck, and the Overseer collapses to the ground.

There is more movement from the shadow and a Newcomer enters, wearing what is clearly an older model Overseer mask, painted with a few strange shapes. They catch the attention of the Eyeless members gathered before being grabbed and hauled over towards Ochaco. She dares not even breathe as the snape toothed woman grins.

“Another Overseer? Aren’t we just lucky today? Perhaps you can tell Kan to stay out of our business.” She goes to grab the mask off their face when the Newcomer pulls their head back and promptly slams it into her face.

What happens next is still a bit fuzzy to Ochaco, as the Newcomer almost looks hurt as they launch away from the woman swinging her sword at them. It swings through the open air, slicing directly into the arm of the man watching Ochaco. He drops his sword, which nicks Ochaco’s shoulder through her shirt, as blood rains down on Ochaco from above. She takes this opportunity to slap their ankles, activating her quirk and sending those two floating up above them. They get stuck on a canopy, but it is enough to get them out of the fight, as they try to fight with quirks more suited to direct contact.

The Newcomer returns, and what looks like strange vines coat their left arm as they pull one of the still standing Eyeless towards themself before the vines vanish into their back, the flung Eyeless sails directly into the wall near Ochaco. The Newcomer launches themself to the other end of the alley where three Eyeless were attempting to run to, and Ochaco takes this time to snatch up the sword by her side and going for the one still dazed from hitting the wall.

As she disarms them and sends him floating before she hears the woman from before let out a shocked gasp, followed by; “Pariah. Stop fighting! We have been blessed by Him, Pariah stands before us today.” Which is directed at those actively trying to stab the Newcomer, or rather, Pariah as they are revealed to be.

One woman, who had used her Quirk to cause barbed wire to wrap around Pariah’s legs just before the announcement was made, immediately drops her sword and begins to unweave the wire from his legs.

“No! Leave them bound, Pariah is our key to speaking with the Outsider.” The man shouts as he gets tangled in some cloth on the end of the overhang.

Ochaco watches from her spot as the remaining three Eyeless, that weren't sent flying close in on Pariah. She can almost hear the panic in their voice as one goes for the mask, and the other two go to pin Pariah down.

Ochaco suddenly can't just stand by. Sure Pariah had defied the abbey publically, and sure they might be an agent of the Outsider, but they don’t deserve this kind of treatment. And so almost without thinking she throws the sword towards Pariah, while also dropping the gravity on the three floating. The sword distracts them, while the falling three provide enough of a diversion for her to swoop in and catch the remaining ones off guard long enough to get them and then some, in the air. Only one gets away, as they turn into a bird and fly away after it becomes apparent they can't win.

Ochaco gets nauseous from the strain on her Quirk, especially with how much she is keeping floating currently, and as she vomits, hears Pariah cutting the wire away from their feet, before the sword clatters down.

“I owe you for this, keep this hidden, it isn't sufficient payment but hopefully it is enough for now. But also consider this as a seal of silence,” they state before pressing a strange two-pronged object into her left hand, the one that faces away from the alley entrance. “Keep it safe, keep it hidden. It will help you in the future. But be warned, Overseers wouldn't hesitate to strike you down if they find you with it. As will they if you mention purposefully helping me.” Then they launch away with the vines, propelling them up to the rooftops and away.

Almost as soon as that's done sirens sound by the entrance of the alley, and what appears to be two heroes come sprinting down the alley towards her. She slides the object, a bone charm she believes, into her pocket as they arrive, grateful for being hunched over against the alley wall.

She recognizes All Might, but the smaller man by his side is unrecognizable. He has goggles on, and a strange black outfit with fingerless gloves, and a white scarf-like weapon he has threaded between his hands. His head turns to Ochaco questioningly for a moment before it is drawn to the symbol still painted on the floor then to the unconscious Eyeless, while All Might looks towards the floating Eyeless and then to Ochaco.

“Are you alright citizen?” All Might asks, resting a hand on her back. Ochaco nods, standing upright as she fights back another wave of nausea.

“As fine as I can be,” she mumbles, and she notices the deep concern in the heroes faces. “Is it that bad?” she adds as she feels the stinging in her arm now that the adrenaline and distracting waves of nausea begin to fade.

“You're covered in blood, where else are you hurt?” All Might asks, the other hero seem to be searching for someone else.

“Only the graze on my arm. Most of the blood is from them,” she says, gesturing upwards to the Eyeless. “And him,” she adds, waving to the dead Overseer. “They stabbed him and threw him on me before they killed him. There was crossfire, I got stuck in it.”

All Might bids before he fiddles with a pack on his side. He returns soon after with a bottle of water and some wet wipes. He offers them to Ochaco and she gratefully accepts, wiping the blood off of her cut as quickly as she can.

“Who got them up there?”

She startles at the blunt question from the second hero, he is now focused directly at her. “It seems like there was someone else helping you out here. So who made them all float?”

“Oh, that was me, my quirk it negates gravity. While they were distracted trying to sacrifice me I was able to get them up there.” Not so much a lie, but omitting details. It still feels wrong, but after seeing Pariah first hand and hearing their anxiousness when it was apparent they might be caught, she can't bring herself to betray them. Besides, she did indirectly promise to keep them safe. She accepted the little charm after all.

The heroes nod, before helping her stand upright. “Can you reverse it? We need to get them ready for the police to take them in.”

She nods, touching her hands and stating: “Release!” as she stumbles from the sudden nauseous wave. All Might nods, watching it with curiosity in his eyes.

“There is an ambulance on the street, head there and get checked out. You look like you need it.” She doesn’t argue and makes her way to the alley entrance as police officers hurry after the heroes. A few people in uniforms make their way over to her, and she is ushered to an ambulance where they make sure there isn't anything too seriously hurt before she is given something for her nausea.

Someone calls her parents, but she isn’t sure who. She’s ushered home by them, and over a late dinner, they talk about different things. Avoiding any talk of the Eyeless.

“Have you thought about what you want to do after middle school? Where you want to go?” her mother asked, eyes shining brightly.

Ochaco is silent for a long moment, contemplating. “UA, I want to be able to help others. To help you both,” she says, staring down at her empty plate for a moment.

* * *

By the time the morning rolls around a newscast is playing, the headline causes Ochaco to freeze in her place.

**Eyeless Gang members captured last night all killed in security breach this morning.**

They were dead, the people who tried to kill her had been killed. She wasn’t sure if she should feel more worried, someone was killing those involved with the incident last night, or if she was going to feel relieved, at least they wouldn’t mention her involvement now. That was never public, and now was never going to be.

Nerves eat away at her as she gets herself ready for school. Perhaps after all was said and done she would feel better. As everything comes together he eyes fall on the bone charm she had left under her pillow the night before.

It sings a soft melody to her, chiming with an ethereal song she could hardly hear.

She makes a decision and slips it into one of her pockets before she leaves.


	2. I'm Still Here

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not as fond of the first chunk of this chapter, but I wanted to establish a couple things in it. Ideally the next chapter should be out sooner than this one took.

During the school day more information regarding the Eyeless incident was finally released, including the name of the killed Overseer, Khulan, and Uraraka’s involvement, along with an announcement from High Overseer Kan himself. As a ward of the Abbey, this was not new information to Izuku, but that didn’t make it any less shocking to hear about Uraraka’s involvement in a hostage situation. As the day continues Izuku is forced to restrain himself from snapping at curious students who try to pry any information out of him, and is on the task of ensuring Uraraka doesn’t have a breakdown regarding anything that happened.

Everything goes fine until lunch comes, at which point the teachers can no longer keep the students from hounding the duo. To the best of his abilities Izuku attempts to keep the focus on him, Uraraka was still shaken up after everything and all of this wasn’t going to help.

“If High Overseer Kan only returned to Japan after Overseer Khulan died then why even return at all?” one of his classmates demands, “Surely any number of things that went on before caught his attention and he didn’t return for those.” It was something nearly everyone was asking, and it was even brought up at the conference High Overseer Kan held earlier that morning, not that it was ever answered.

“None of that was the Abbey’s business, the murder of an Overseer directly plays into the Abbey’s territory. Most of the major events recently weren’t enough to attract the Abbey’s attention, the heroes were more than enough to handle them. They don't tell me much.” Izuku explains, carefully avoiding mentioning the incident with the Sky Egg a few years back. They had nearly lost the Vice Overseer then and it was still a touchy subject for many.

"That makes sense I suppose. It's still strange that they only choose now to become involved is all. There have been things that were close enough to get attention."

"Different situations, they needed different treatment. I can't speak for the entire Abbey, I'm just a ward, I'm not told every little detail." Izuku explains, his nerves getting frayed.

The person arguing with him has taken to eating while demanding answers, and Izuku's skin crawls. He bites his tongue, shooing everyone away. They don't stay gone for long and he endures more of the same question throughout the day.

After school got out Uraraka and Izuku head outside by side. Uraraka and her parents, still nervous about heading home along had asked Izuku to make sure she made it safely. He was also her only friend who lived close enough to justify it. Not that it really mattered.

Izuku finds himself dreading every step they take as they pass an outpost for the Oracular Order, while they were not a vehement about the Outsider as the Overseer offices, being this close still sets his skin burning with fear. He pulls the sleeves of his shirt down even though nothing could be seen on his arms. His mark was on his back, not his arms. He chalks it up to a habit left over from hiding the burns he got years ago.

“Dekiru,” Uraraka asks, using the nickname that the Vice Overseer always used for Izuku. Her voice breaks the silence that had grown as they walked. “I know you’re a ward of the Overseers and what not, but I have to wonder… Do you think someone would get in trouble if they were aided by a heretic?” Blood freezes in Izuku’s veins and he almost chokes on his own breath. “Like say someone was trapped in a burning building, and the heroes couldn’t get them, but someone marked could. Would they get in trouble for going with the rescue, or would they be pardoned due to circumstances?” Izuku relaxes at her follow up and allows himself a moment to consider her question.

“If they had a reason, I don’t think so.” he answers finally, the duo had stopped walking when they reached a bridge. A street just barely visible beyond it. This wasn’t a topic to be caught discussing among others. “If they didn’t know the person was a heretic before they were rescued they should be fine. But if they knew and didn’t tell anyone? That’s a bad thing.” he rubs his shoulder nervously, hiding it as fixing the strap of his backpack.

“What if they found out afterward, but didn’t tell anyone because they felt like that would be a betrayal of trust?” Uraraka looks spaced out, her eyes facing upwards and watching the clouds as they pass by overhead.

“They would be treated as bad as the heretics. It’s one thing to not know, and another to withhold vital information.” Panic seeps into his voice, and by the time he is done talking he has almost risen an octave trying to speak.

She hums in response, turning away from him for a moment continuing to trace the patterns of the clouds with her gaze.

“Ochaco,” he warns, and the lack of any nickname used on his part catches her attention. She meets his eyes and sees his harsh gaze. “What are you trying to say?” Izuku doesn’t intend for it to be so harsh, but fear is eating away at him now. _What is she avoiding?_

“Something one of the Eyeless said got under my skin. It’s nothing really, I guess it just bothered me more than I thought.” she shrugs, and Izuku almost believes her. Silence falls yet again, but this time neither look at the other.

Izuku watches the street ahead, and Uraraka returns to watching the sky. He tries to figure out what he can say, there is something wrong about the situation, and he hates it.

He turns towards her yet again and goes to respond when he feels _something_ soak into his shoe. Now his fear is justified, as he looks down to see a sentient puddle of slime piling out of a sewer grate near him.

“Get back!” Izuku yelps, flinging his bag into Uraraka in an attempt to redirect the force into his legs, it fails as the slime just absorbs the shock. He panics and tries to do _something_ to get free as he is yanked down into the ever-growing ball of slime By now it has formed into something resembling a very large blobish figure, and when Izuku tries to wriggle his way out, what he can only assume is the things hands, grab his head.

“A decent sized invisibility suit. Hold still, this won’t take very long.” The slime rumbles and Izuku realizes that this was a person, someone’s quirk allowed them to do this. And they were going to use him as a puppet. It made him sick. He continued to thrash, attempting to rip himself free from the slime, succeeding in one of his hands getting free. He attempted to channel his quirk, to force the strain away, to do something to ease the crushing weight on him.

The panic was fully setting in as Izuku searched for somewhere he could leap to, anywhere he could get to safety. But Uraraka was there, fear in her eyes as she attempted to reach him through the pile of slime. His back burned, and if he didn’t know better Izuku could swear that the mark on his back was glowing with a blinding light. As he struggled, his only free hand gradually being absorbed into the slime, he felt someone slap his hand. Uraraka was shouting at him, but by now Izuku’s face was completely covered, his ears fuzzy and his vision blurred. He didn’t dare breathe fearing he might drown.

“Settle down kid, this will be easier if you didn’t fight back so much.” the slime man rumbled, and it was all Izuku could hear. Izuku refused to stop. His quirk was screaming at him to stop, the force was just being reflected back into him. And it _hurt_ , he felt like his insides were liquefying.

While he attempted to get free the slime pried his mouth open with a surprising amount of strength, and when he tried to force it away the force traveled through the slime back to him. Perhaps it was a result of the constricting feeling that was now spreading across all of Izuku’s body as the slime man covered him more and more, it might have been overworking his quirk, but regardless Izuku was gradually weakening. Izuku was helpless to try and free himself as the slime man began to fill his lungs. It helped that he was gradually rising up and out of the slime though, now that the villain was attempting to steal his body he had released his grip.

If he got just far enough he might be able to warp away, to claim he was saved by someone on the street. It would be so easy. He just needed to keep his own body long enough to get to a safe point. A hand wraps around his now exposed ankle as he and the slime villain rise a foot or so off the ground, the slime villain now clinging to Izuku like a lifeline rather than the ground. But by this point, he hasn’t been able to breathe for so long, and he feels his movements getting weaker with each thrash of his body. He is so close to just warping to safety and being done with this.

The hand gripping his foot releases.

The air pressure changes and suddenly Izuku can feel and hear and see again, he is grateful his quirk is in overdrive as the blow connects with his chest, beyond a gentle tap of the fist he feels nothing. He redirects that force into his feet, his shoes ripping apart and the pavement below bursting with the blow. The slime is launched off of him and he is pulled back onto the ground, Uraraka grabs him.

He hears Uraraka’s panicked “Release!” as he slams down the last few inches to the ground. He faces into the ground and retches up a pile of the slime man. Finally able to breathe Izuku flips around and watches as the clouds roll across the sky. Izuku tries really hard to not black out, and he loses the fight for that. He really wishes his quirk would work on that.

* * *

Thankfully he isn’t out for very long, a minute at most, or so he hopes, and it’s primarily from quirk strain and his own foolish actions regarding his mark. He’s glad he wakes up before they try and send him to the hospital, but when he comes to his only thought is towards Uraraka and his savior. He doesn’t even think they are aware he’s awake yet.

He takes the time to assess his situation before he even attempts to open his eyes. He is laying down, still sticky from the slime. His feet are cold and he feels grit clinging to them. Izuku's head is propped up on his school bag, and when he opens his eyes he can see the situation. He is in the same spot he fell, facing away from the tunnel, back towards the Oracular Order's Outpost, and he can pick up on someone moving about behind him. They are shuffling quite a bit and Izuku makes special note of how heavy they seem to be breathing. As if they are out of breath.

Uraraka is sitting at his side, nervously fiddling with her phone. Her breathing is shaky but quiet. She's always considerate of him even in odd situations like this. She sounds shaken when speaking up though, "Are you sure we should just wait for him to wake up? It seems wrong."

"Give him time, quirk exhaustion happens. Once he wakes up we can go from there. Everyone handles it differently." His savior states and Izuku recognizes the voice. All Might.

It strikes him as odd that the hero is so out of breath and Izuku tips his head back to see better. He hardly moves, and Uraraka doesn't notice. She's watching the Pro Hero intensely. All Might breaks into a wet cough, and Izuku can almost hear a hissing sound.

Uraraka darts away yelling to All Might. "All Might sir? Are you alright?"

Izuku stands on shaky legs and faces them but finds his view obstructed by smoke. He uses Void Gaze, against his better judgment and can see Uraraka, the bright green she always is but with an orange glow to her head, standing beside All Might, who is mostly orange and red before he collapses in on himself and the red localizes by his left side.

Curious Izuku calls out to them, "Are you alright there? Do I need to get one of the Order?" It wasn't like any of the Order would help, but it might reassure them.

"No, I think we are fine." A new voice, it sounds like All Might, but off. Maybe Izuku is just making connections because he saw the change before his eyes. "What all did you see?" The man asks, emerging from the smoke. He looks skeletal, gaunt and like a harsh breeze could break him.

Izuku cancels Void Gaze hurriedly, before speaking, a bit embarrassed. "Everything sir, or at least enough." He hangs his head not wanting to make eye contact.

Uraraka follows and hurries to Izuku's side, nervous and keeps glancing between him and All Might.

"You're High Overseer Kan's ward right?" All Might asks, his tone weird. Almost nervous.

Izuku nods, and wonders why that would be an issue. And then it hits him. All Might lied about being hurt, lied about a villain attack or whatever caused his injury.

 _Restrict the lying tongue that sparks in man's mouth. For the echoes come back as the voice of the Outsider._ All Might was breaking the second stricture. He was afraid of his secret being revealed and of his actions being seen as heresy.

"You kept a secret to keep the public calm right?" Laws were broken all the time for the greater good. The High Overseer himself lied about his own past to keep the public happy and unafraid.

Uraraka is anxious now, almost agitated. She keeps looking away, towards something All Might dropped.

"Well yes, the Abbey holds me in high esteem. If they found out I couldn't maintain my hero form for long everything could collapse into chaos. Villains becoming bolder, more aggressive. It must stay a secret, please." All Might looked panicked, and Izuku feels a bolt of sympathy for the man.

"My word holds little power, I'm not an Overseer. The High Overseer may be my guardian, but he has other duties to attend to. It is hard to get council with him as it stands. Especially with the Eyeless attack." Izuku says the lie comes easily. Not that he is very surprised, he found himself lying more and more recently.

Uraraka beside him moves away, inspecting the bottles while All Might attempts to reassure Izuku.

"It makes sense, he is a powerful man. I think I owe you my thanks for keeping my secret. I know it goes against the Abbey's teachings but I promise there is an important reason." He looks relieved and looks ready to speak again when Uraraka speaks up in a panicked tone.

"The Slime Villain, he's escaped."


	3. Hey There Kid, I'm Your Salvation

Ochaco feels hollow, an empty bottle clutched in her hand as she takes in the crack along the side. She can hear All Might and Midoriya discussing keeping this a secret, and once everything dies down she jumps in.

"The Slime Villain, he's escaped. The bottle, it-it cracked and he got out." She sounds panicked, and she is. Fear seeps into her as she anticipates another attack. When nothing happens, and the others just look, Ochaco regains her composure. She shoves the broken bottle into All Might's gaunt hand.

"You know someone who can help. Right?" She said, less of a question and more of a statement. He had to know, he wasn't the Number One Hero without some form of support. Even if it was just one person.

All Might nods slowly, "Yes, a detective. I will take this to him and see if we can't get any support from the police. The two of you, get somewhere safe. The villain could be anywhere."

He leaves after that, hurrying towards the street before vanishing into the crowd. Ochaco turns towards Midoriya but he was shaking his head. "It won't work. He wanted a place to hide, someone he could use as a skinsuit. He's gonna find someone else, if All Might is attempting to get police support it might be too late."

She nods, but her gaze is drawn to something else in the alley, a smaller bottle, with only a small amount of goo in it. It seems to keep rolling into a wall, gently tapping against it every couple of seconds. "He needed two bottles." The realization strikes her hard, "The villain couldn't fit into just one plastic bottle, he had to use two. This might be our only shot at finding him before he does anything."

She snatches it up, noticing the goo keeps moving the same way, regardless of how she moves the bottle. "We can follow him."

* * *

The two track the goo to an alley, where a fair number of people seem to have gathered. Someone shouts at a few heroes to do something, but the pro heroes there stood in shock. A wailing is heard from within, a child's cry for help.

Mt. Lady was the first hero there, and she is focused on keeping others away, and Ryukyu is snapping into a phone. No one has noticed the two yet, but Ochaco knows that won't last very long. She slips the bottle into her bag before she looks around.

"Izuku, I don't think the heroes here can reach the kid in the alley. Someone needs to do something."

"Then do it, my quirk won't work on him, but yours will. All you gotta do is slap him, use both hands. So, get in there and help." He says, "I'll see if I can't find someone else to help. Hurry." Midoriya darts off down the streets, and Ochaco is forced to readjust her bag, she takes a deep breath before shoving through the crowd.

The two heroes there try and pull her back, but Ochaco darts away. She's small, she can easily bob and weave. Her sights are set on the slime villain, who is wrestling for control with a child. She looks only about four or five at most, with the barest hint of a horn poking out from her forehead, and the fear in her eyes is heavily noticeable. Ochaco wastes no time in grabbing an assortment of items off the floor, mainly broken glass and chunks of mortar. Each of them gets sent up into the air as she hurls them above the slime villain’s head.

The weight settles on her, as she feels the strain beginning to appear, but Ochaco pushes on throwing two hands out and clapping the slime with both. It molds around her for a moment before he begins to rise. The child is being moved alongside him, rising off the floor as she is trapped, only her face visible for seconds at a time.

Ochaco pushes past the slime molding to her hand shape, managing to snag the child’s foot.

“I’m so sorry for this!” she says, and then hurls herself forwards, the momentum yanking the child free while launching the slime villain away. The child’s shout of pain at being yanked is cut short as she is yanked into, and them promptly out of the slime. Her and Ochaco roll a bit as the slime villain continues to go airborne, the child clings to Ochaco’s shirt, with a muffled yelp as the two slam into the ground.

Opting to ignore the furious words coming from the slime villain, for now, the two scramble towards safety, where once a safe enough distance from the alley, Ochaco pulls the child into her arms before standing. The slime villain gets a good distance up when Ochaco touches her fingertips together.

“Release,” she whispers, shielding the child from the splat sound as the slime villain returns to the ground. It is enough to destabilize him, causing the villain to become a puddle on the ground.

In the moment of calm following, Ochaco readjusts her grip on the child before a commotion is heard up ahead. It is enough for the two to look back towards the entrance to the alley.

Where a man is forcing his way through the crowd. He's wearing a strange mask, and he nearly pushes the heroes away from him as two other people filter behind him. Each of the three is wearing similar masks. For the moment, not a single one has looked up at her, or even in her direction. They all seem to be more focused on getting past the heroes, and crowd.

As they approach a chill settles over Ochaco, and her vision clouds a bit at the corners. Hardly noticeable when the men come closer and she can see them better. Their masks are odd.

They're different from the ones the Overseer's wear, covering two of the others' entire faces, and only the mouth of the first. Each in the shape of a beak. The first man, the partial masked one, approaches quickly, his eyes locked in the child in her arms.

"I must thank you for saving my daughter. Be a dear and hand her over now."

Ochaco can feel the child beside her wriggling further into her grip as the man speaks. Avoiding looking at the man approaching, Ochaco stands, tightening her grip on the child. Ochaco feels the pain building in the back of her head as the quirk strain begins to take effect.

"Why don't we get her checked out by the heroes? She's terrified, that slime villain almost killed her."

"She wouldn't have died, but even if she did, I could fix her. It's what I do." The first man crooned, "I make people better."

Below the men's feet the slime ripples, rising before it touches the first. He reacts swiftly, his hands, formerly covered in gloves, snap down and sink into the slime.

It screams in response, a wailing sound that makes Ochaco hurt to hear. But just as quickly as it started it ends, and nothing is left below the men. Only a small smear. And then it ripples back into human shape, reforming into a person who staggers away from the scene.

"See? He’s all better now. So please, give me my child." His voice has become crueler, and yet it retained the sickly sweet tone from before. "She is a danger to people like you. And I don't want to be responsible for more people getting hurt."

Her back hits a wall as Ochaco subconsciously backs away from him. The child is muttering something as her face burrows into Ochaco's shoulder.

"The heroes need to make sure she isn't in shock. She just went through something traumatic." She argues, but the man refuses to stop.

Someone at the front of the alley is yelling. Police sirens are going off, and the voices of Overseers can be heard.

The man looks furious at this point and he makes a grab for Ochaco, his ungloved hand a blatant threat.

Shielding the child Ochaco merely accepts her fate, and then the man freezes. Barely a hair's breadth away from her, he seems to ripple in and out of focus.

To either side, she notices the other two have also closed in, but they too seem to be fading and rippling between focus. Ochaco tries to worm-free, to edge between the men boxing her in, but she dreads accidentally touching any. The fear her movements might awaken them too strong.

As she contemplates her situation she feels everything around her warp. The floor seems to drop beneath her feet and pressure forms in her ears before she is on the rooftop, the child has gone eerily silent in her arms.

Before the two of them stands a perfect replica of Ochaco, all the way down to the scrapes from rolling away from the slime villain. "Does my mask really look like that? Weird."

The chill that had settled over her lifts and she is now face to face with a beat-up Overseer mask, defaced and painted in a familiar fashion.

Pariah, at least, seems amused.

"I feel like you are the one who owes me at this point. Getting involved with the Eyeless and then the Shie Hassaiki?" The vigilante shakes their head. "At some point, I think you're gonna have to repay this favor, but for now you need to get that kid to safety. The Yakuza aren't good to be raised near."

They begin to talk away, pausing for Ochaco to catch up.

"Can't we just head back down? Ryukyu and Mt. Lady were there. Surely they can help the child."

"The street down there is a mess of Overseers, they removed all heroes and police. Wanting to handle this on their own. Besides, the Overseers have no space for a girl, and the Order doesn't take children."

They looked back at Ochaco, "The Overseers may take care of the Shie Hassaiki, but that doesn't mean they'll keep them under control for long. So I’m gonna get you two to a safe location, and hopefully, you can get in contact with the police." They say before they launch themself over the gap between buildings, a vine-like whip spreading from their left arm.

Ochaco stares across the gap, and the child in her arms looks startled at what Pariah just accomplished. “How do you expect up to get across? I can’t exactly do any of that.”

“But you can float, right? I can just pull you around.”

She stares blankly at the vigilante before her. “My quirk takes a toll the heavier the object, and an even worse one when moving myself.”

“You have the bone charm I gave you, right?” Pariah asks, and she can almost hear the grin that has to be covering their face. When she nods, Pariah continues. “Specially made to reduce and relocate quirk strain. Should only give you a stomachache if you use it on yourself. So, you do that and I can pull you across the rooftops and get you to safety.”

“You are sounding exactly like my friend right now, he would have weird plans just like yours. Hopefully, this works as well. I’m trusting you.” Ochaco says.

She redirects her focus instead towards the child in her arms, “Okay kid, we’re gonna float around for a bit. Trust me, you’re gonna be just fine. I won’t let you fall or get hurt at all. Got it?” she asks.

The child seems to contemplate this before nodding, “Got it.” she answers, her voice shaky.

With that said and done, Ochaco shifts one hand and presses her fingers into her cheek before her and the child begin to float.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In my defense, I've been working on a Skyrim fic. I lost motivation for this chapter after I fiddled around with the entire middle and end sequence too much, and I needed to refresh my mind before coming back. I'm not super happy with how it turned out, but the way I'm taking this fic would have left these characters in the void of never being used or even thought of. So I figured I might as well work them into the rest of this.


	4. Better A Social Pariah Than An Overseer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter took a long time, I'm sorry about that. Each verse kept making me unhappy until this point.

Pariah stops at the edge of a rooftop, noticing the two people cornered into the back end of an alley. The vigilante hurries to the end of the alley to find a trio of people have also shoved their way into the alley, slamming heroes away and throwing civilians to the ground. They tense, ready to leap into action before the groups' masks come properly into view, fighting them would be very bad.

Instead, Pariah looks to see who else they might be able to use. There is a familiar sight of numerous Overseer's arriving on scene and shooing the heroes and civilians away. But by then they back to the duo at the end of the alley, the civilian from the night before, Uraraka stands with a child in her arms. Both are nearly visible to the masked trio, and vulnerable because of it.

Before they get closer, Pariah focuses on her before sending a rush of void magic between them.

"Let's hope this works." They whisper, and Pariah watches as Uraraka's visible form ripples before she looks exactly like them. Complete with the dark green overcoat, and the rune painted old Overseer’s mask.

Pariah then gets to work on their next plan, if the Shie Hissaiki were here then the child and Uraraka needed immediate evacuation. Needed to get somewhere safe, where Overseers couldn’t discover Pariah was around.

As the Shie Hissaiki threaten Uraraka, Pariah finalizes their plan and warps the void again, stepping into New Perspective and setting small markers on her and the child, before placing them on the roof in front of the vigilante. As everything snaps back, they notice that the leader of the Shie Hissaiki has grown dangerously close to Uraraka, and in a moment of panic, they dart each of them with Void Trap, watching as they each flicker about in view and immobile.

They take a moment to chug one of the bottles in their pouch, feeling suddenly drained as they push their limits on what can be done before expending their connection to the void. After a moment they snap the connection between the points of Uraraka and the roof, sending her and the child before them.

She panics for a moment and looks ready to attack but confusion shadows her gaze as she looks over Pariah. Beneath the mask Pariah mirrors her confusion, not quite realizing what the issue was, before they remember that right now Uraraka looked like them, and they looked like Uraraka.

In an effort to keep this light-hearted Pariah jokes, "Does my mask really look like that? Strange." Before dispelling the magic wrapped around them.

Behind the mask, Pariah grins broadly and stands partially leaning forward to observe the child while rocking on their heels thinking of a follow-up plan. After a moment it hits them, and Pariah jumps into action.

* * *

The trio ends up a decent distance from the scene, not too far but enough for it to seem rational for someone else to have saved them. Or so they will claim, in truth Pariah was exhausted, never having had to use the powers gifted to them quite so much. Even with their supply of potions, they find themself exhausted beyond reason. So they pick a building with a few distinctive parts to it and decides to stop there. Pulling the floating duo was as easy as it was the first time if not just that much more tiring as their connection to the void drains even more.

Pariah looks up towards Uraraka, "You can drop now, we aren't going any further. You two are safe enough, and there are a few heroes on the street helping citizens." They promise, and sure enough Uraraka and the child drop, they hadn't let them get too high up, but even so, they help them down.

Uraraka sets the little girl down, holding her hand tightly as she thanks Pariah. "I'm still not sure how you knew where I was, but that's the second time you've saved me. Thank you, I dread to imagine what might have happened to me or the girl if you hadn't helped." Uraraka says before her attention is drawn away.

She frowns, looking beyond Pariah, and a glance at the child reveals the same. Before they can react a scarf like weapon wraps around the vigilante, binding Pariah in place. Being pulled onto the ground not a moment later.

"What?" They splutter, breathless. "Who?" Panic seeps in even through the masks voice changer, and they can hear someone moving closer. They attempt to wriggle free from the weapon holding them but finds no luck.

Uraraka and the child have leapt back, the little girl now safely clutched in Uraraka's grip. She isn't as panicked as them, visually at least, and Pariah takes solace in that as the vigilante hears their captor approach.

"I'd bring up unregulated quirk use, but in self-defense, the situation is a bit blurred." They hear from a rather unamused source. Pariah tries not to look as someone turns their masked head, forcing them to look right into the hero's face. “Especially when a heretic such as this one is involved.” The slight hitch in the hero's voice when he says the word ‘heretic’ is just barely noticeable to Pariah. A fact that he feels compelled to use to his advantage.

“A heretic like me? I’ve saved these people.” They state, fake anger seeping into their voice. “Even when they’re those living under the thumb of the Abbey.” Now real anger begins to enter Pariah’s voice. “Especially when they’re those beaten down and weakened because they can’t fight for themselves. Especially those who are fed lies about their abilities because the Abbey favors them.”

A choked gasp sounds from where Uraraka and the child were, and they feel only a slight pang of remorse at their harsh words. But it needed to be said. More needs to be said.

They go to continue their rant when the hero kicks Pariah in the chest. They cough and struggle for ait for a moment, wheezing as the hero looks down with anger in his eyes.

"That's enough," the hero states, pulling Pariah into a sitting position. "A true hero doesn’t insult civilians to make their point.” He scrutinizes Pariah’s mask for a moment before continuing. “If you truly are someone who helps people, will you be as talkative without your mask?” He inquires, reaching a hand down to reach for it.

Beneath the mask Pariah grins, "I always am. But for the sake of anonymity why don't I make the setting a bit more fitting?" The grin is heard on their voice as a strange mist billows around the group. The hero stops and looks around, attempting to find the location as Pariah summons up a double and sends it off.

It slams past Uraraka and the child, vanishing into the mist as Pariah warps to a marker they set earlier. They hear an angry shout but run in the opposite direction, descending a fire escape and escaping on foot.


	5. Be Ecofriendly, Plant a Tree, Ignore the Lingering Feeling of Betrayal You Got From Someone You Hardly Knew Who Saved Your Life That One Time, Clean a Park

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lack of updates, I had to get my mental health back in gear before I could actually write more. Hopefully I can get one out at least once a month from here on out. This chapters rather short, and I apologize, but I wanted to get something out, and this chapter was a pain to write.

Ochaco walks towards the park Midoriya invited her to earlier that day. It was the first time he contacted her since she was released from the police station the night before. She asked for space, time to think and is glad he agreed and respected that. The night was confusing, and Ochaco still is confused about a lot of it.

The hero from the night before, Eraserhead, had taken in the child, Eri, after the interviews with the police, and Ochaco was waiting for word from the two. Since she was the one to save the girl, she would keep in touch with the two, just so that the child had a link to the one who saved her. Until an official home for Eri was found at least. Ochaco hopes it is found soon, she worries for the girl.

But her thoughts drift to Pariah, the vigilante, or whatever they truly were, bothers her too much for her mind to settle. It was less of anything they directly did, but everything Pariah said stuck with her. Even now, Ochaco can’t help but question their words, and the actual actions of the Abbey recently. If the Abbey was truly as dedicated to helping the people as they claimed.

The walk to the park had given her far too much time to think, to consider. Frankly Ochaco just wants a break from the day before, but her wandering mind refuses to be calm. She ends up so lost in thought that once she reaches her destination, she is startled by just how, well, pathetic the place looks. Trash and weeds cover most of the greenery, and there is a distinct lack of anything outside of dying grass and dirt that can be seen between the garbage that piles up, and the weeds that seem to cover every inch of available soil.

“Why are we out here?” she asks, catching sight of Midoriya and approaching him.

“After the incident yesterday, I felt like if we want to go on to become heroes, we needed to find ways to work without our quirks. To be able to be strong enough, to endure enough, to be able to help others regardless of it your quirk is viable.” Midoriya explains, “I figured we could at least work on doing something helpful while achieving that.” he gestures towards the mess behind him.

Ochaco nods, "So we can fix this place up and get stronger without our quirks, so we don't always have to rely on them. Alright, where do we start?"

"I got bags for the little bits of trash, we can start there and as we move on to the heavier stuff we can see if it's possible to rent a dumpster or something." Midoriya suggests, "If not, we can always just find a nearby place we can leave them. Or call someone to pick it up."

Ochaco agrees, and quickly the two set everything up to go. They split up, Ochaco being put in charge of everything close to the road. She loves doing this, it's hard work, and she has to wear gloves to keep the trash from leaving her bag, but with things getting clean it hardly matters.

* * *

It takes a week before there is a visible difference in the park. A week in which the two juggled school, cleaning, and daily tasks. Ochaco is a bit envious of how others can walk by with judgemental looks when they see her and Midoriya cleaning. But it's alright, the more she cleans the cleaner her heart feels.

This is going to help more than just a few people. And she holds on to that fact, covets it because she's making a difference when others refuse.

After nearly an entire break from school the job is done. Just a few days before the UA entrance exams and the two friends stand before an entirely clean field, with new fresh grass laid down and a few benches they got through the city have been set up and installed with the help of a few other volunteers. Behind them there are a few plants to be placed, their last official task before this is considered finished.

They work in tandem, Ochaco digging the spots for the bushes and flowers, Midoriya carefully settling the plants down before setting them in safely. Once they are all in place then comes their final task, together they make a spot for the tree they got.

The same breed as the rest of the trees in the park, and it is carefully planted and observed. It sits in the center of the pathway, amplifying the circular shape they created. A circular bench curls around it.

Ochaco thinks the place looks lovely.

Her and Midoriya take a break once it hits five in the afternoon and Ochaco gets a chance to talk with her friend.

"How'd you come up with this idea in the first place?" she asks, sitting down on the now soft grass.

Midoriya shrugs, "I guess it just felt like the right thing to do. I couldn't help yesterday because of my quirk and there wasn't anything I could do physically. And you couldn't flee on your own once you got Eri. So I kinda wanted to make sure it wouldn't happen again." He tugs at his shirt sleeves which managed to pull upwards while he spoke. "Plus, we're gonna be heroes, might as well do all we can to start improving the city." He beams finishing the water he had.

Ochaco nods and then a question strikes her. "Sorry if I'm overstepping but I've always wondered and it seems more concerning today. Why do you only wear long sleeve shirts? I've never seen you with a short sleeve."

Midoriya temporarily freezes a look of confusion passes him before he answers. "Vice Overseer Wisteria doesn't want me to wear short sleeves. I still have the scars from the attack where my parents died." He says in a very crisp manner, his smile having faded. "They're not too bad, but they're enough to worry him."

Ochaco nods, "The Overseers seem to be very concerned over appearances and making sure everyone stays uniform. Don’t they?"

Midoriya agrees, "It wouldn't be so bad if I wasn't the High Overseers ward, the others who are watched by smaller outposts don't have as many restrictions, I guess they just need to keep the idea everything is perfect."

The two fall into a familiar silence before Midoriya speaks up, "How is Eri doing?"

"Good, one of Eraserhead's friends, one of the Wild Wild Pussycats, took custody. The group is already caring for Mandalay's nephew, adding a new child wasn't as huge a change as it would before an underground hero. They called the other day to let me know." Ochaco grins, "I was relieved to hear it, the poor girl needed the help to get more control on her quirk anyway."

Midoriya smiles again, genuinely excited it feels. "I'm glad, she deserves that stability. Hopefully they can help her master her quirk. It was some sort of reversal right?"

"Yeah, a powerful rewind quirk. They gave the Cats some stuff that could reduce the effectiveness of it until she gains proper control, noting to nullify it. But enough so that she doesn't cause too much damage." She explains, fiddling with the water bottle she held. "The poor girl was terrified of her own quirk, hardly had it for a week before she was being used as a lab rat. I’m glad she’s got a support system set up, and somewhere safe she can learn to control it.” Ochaco says.

The two begin to change topics, driving away from the more serious stuff and instead moving on to talking about the looming entrance exams.

“They won’t let prospective students from the same school go to the same practical exams, so we can meet up afterwards if you want.” Ochaco offers, “Discuss how things went, and then we can go from there, yeah?”

“Sure, I heard that the written exam and the entrance announcements aren’t separated, perhaps we can meet up beforehand too.” Midoriya suggests.

Ochaco nods, “That sounds good. It’s in two days right? We can rest before that time, and the night before we can discuss where to meet.”

“That’s a good idea, I’ll call you that night and we can go over some review stuff too.” He adds, before standing up. He offers a hand to Ochaco as he continues, “If you want we can try and meet up at UA early so we can go over our limits with our quirks and stuff too.”

Ochaco considers for a moment, “That sounds good. If not UA let’s try somewhere nearby too, I don’t want to get in trouble for quirk use before the exams.”

With that their plan for the next few days was covered, the two leave the park they fixed up and go their separate ways after Midoriya gets Ochaco to a train station, it was nearly dark, and few people were going to go after the High Overseer’s ward after all. Ochaco makes it home without incident, something she has grown more grateful for every time it happens after she was captured by the Eyeless.

She helps around the house, the next two days, cleaning and putting things away after meals. She refuses to stay idle, the months she spent working on the park space mean she is nowhere near as exhausted as she would have been a few months ago. When the day for the exams come up she is awake four hours early, and grabs a few things she would need.

She hesitates as she goes to grab the bracelet she uses to reduce nausea, she had thrown the bone charm Pariah gave her into the same drawer as the bracelet. She pulls the bracelet off and looks strangely at it, remembering how she carved out a portion of it for the charm that night, then forgot about it in the morning. Ochaco knows it is a bad idea, but part of her was grateful for how the strange magic of the charm helped her quirk use, and she slips it into its slot in her bracelet, sliding the thing closed before putting it on.

The singing is fainter than before, muffled by the material of the bracelet, but she can still feel it. The strange energy it gave her feels familiar to her, even if she hardly used it before casting the small thing aside. Her father knocks on the door to remind her that she wanted to leave early, and Ochaco hurries to catch the train bidding her parents farewell as she runs off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact, chapters 3, 4, and 5 weren't in my outline or even considered when drafting this fic out. So unlike the others I literally didn't know what to do with any of these. This made them way more of a struggle to write, so I'm sorry these ones took so long to update. With this chapter ended I'm back on schedule with my outline. So hopefully stuff will be written way faster.


	6. Ochaco Discovers Momentum

Ochaco and Midoriya had spent the past few hours in the area around UA working on improving their quirk usage. They were careful not to go too overboard and tire themselves out. But even as it was Ochaco felt less strained than she usually would.

As she drops the rock she had been floating Ochaco feels a wave of nausea hit her before it passes easily. All she ends up doing is making herself a bit dizzy. She knows its because of the charm in her bracelet, but she can't bring herself to admit it quite yet. Part of her is hoping she's just progressed that much.

Midoriya speaks up after helping her keep her balance. "We better get going. The exams will be starting soon and I want to make sure we aren't late. It wouldn't show well for us if we were."

She smiles, "Sure thing." He looks relieved. She doesn't blame her friend, the thought of being late to the entrance exams filled her with dread she couldn't quite identify.

* * *

With the written portion of the exam completed the prospective students are ushered into an auditorium. Midoriya is antsy, looking around for somewhere as far from the huge crowds to sit as possible.

Ochaco feels a pang of sympathy for her friend, meetings and assemblies are usually crowded and she knows Midoriya hates the crowds. Too noisy he claims, and Ochaco listens. She hates knowing her friend might feel helpless anywhere.

As it turns out the closest either can find to being a relatively quiet spot was next to a kid with purple hair. Ochaco is polite in asking if they can sit there, ever cautious about intruding on anyone's space. But he agrees, and Izuku gets a seat right on the edge of a walkway. Ochaco ends up in between the two.

"Thank you for letting us sit here, I really appreciate it. My name's Midoriya Izuku." He greets, waving from beside Ochaco.

"Shinso Hitoshi." He says, returning the wave. He turns to Ochaco, "I take it you two know each other?"

Ochaco nods, "We went to the same secondary school. My name's Uraraka Ochaco."

Shinso raises his eyebrows at that, "The girl who saved that little girl, Eri, right?"

"Oh, yeah." She says jolting in her seat a little bit, unaware that the news had actually been released. Since that day she had avoided any headlines mentioning the slime villain, or Pariah, at all, if they existed. She never actually felt the need to check. "I didn't know they mentioned me in the news at all yet. I was hoping after the aftermath with the Eyeless incident they'd listen to my concerns for privacy."

"The story isn't published. The Abbey wants to keep any information involving Pariah secret. How come you know?" Midoriya asks, sitting forwards in his seat.

Shinso doesn't seem perturbed by any stretch of the imagination. "My uncle was involved with the case. He was one of the lead investigators. I didn't know it was a sore subject." He turns to Midoriya with a critical eye. "How come you know about the Abbey's refusal?" He asks very bluntly.

Midoriya shrinks a little, "I'm a ward of the Vice Overseer, and by extension the High Overseer."

Shinsou gives him an odd look before turning away with a rather rude "hmm," he faces the stage where the speaker is now approaching. Midoriya frowns and gives Ochaco a sad look before he too faces the stage. Ochaco gives him a gentle nudge before shooting her friend a smile.

As she does so the assembly begins, and Ochaco listens as Present Mic fails to get the audience to respond to his excited cheers.

Only three respond, and Ochaco is a bit shocked to hear Shinso yelling a "Hello!" Alongside her and Midoriya.

Present Mic, as unenthusiastic as the audience may seem, grins and shoots their small row a set of finger guns. "That's the kind of energy I love to hear!"

A blue haired boy shoots them a sharp glare from a few rows up, fixing his stern gaze on Midoriya. Beside her, her friend freezes in his soft and quiet mutterings to himself. His jaw clicks shut and he once more frowns as he returns his gaze to the stage.

Ochaco does the same, and watches as on a screen pictures of robots begin popping up. "These are the enemies of the practical test, each one is ranked by points. If you look at the sheets you were given by the proctors from the written test you will see that they are listed there as well."

One pops up on the projected image, a small robot, with a person for scale. This one is hardly taller than the person. "The one-pointer," Mic introduces. The image changes to a bigger robot, this one more pyramid like compared to the half circle of the one-pointer. "This is the two-pointer," and the image swaps again. Now it shows a robot the same size as the two-pointer, except this one is square looking. "And right here is the last of the point robots, the three-pointer. Your goal during this exam is to take out as many as you can."

All three appear on the screen now, and a short clip plays for how they react in a fight.

"Get as many points as you can, go all out." Mic explains. "The robots may cause slight injuries, but that's why we have medical staff at the ready. They will be patrolling the arenas, equipped to be left alone by the robots, and if you are seriously injured, or can't keep fighting, find them and get help." Mic begins to explain, before he can continue someone pipes up.

"What about the lasers? Can't those hurt us? In the video they are certainly blowing up whole buildings." Ochaco can't see the speaker, but she is glad they spoke up. She was wondering the same thing.

"Unless you yourself are by some strange chance made entirely of metal and electrical wiring yourself, the lasers they shoot will only cause a slight shock. Taking too many will cause issues though be careful. We designed these three to make sure that while the students can't take constant hits they won't be to heavily injured by the robots." Mic says. "Any other questions?"

The blue haired boy raises his hand, and Mic points to him. "The pamphlet mentions a fourth robot. Is this just a misprint? And can you lot please keep quiet when he is speaking?" He adds, giving Midoriya a severely disappointed gaze.

Mic ignores the last part, focusing instead on the question regarding the exam. "Not a misprint at all, but we have just been going over the robots that count towards your score. The fourth robot is our zero pointer, you won't get any points just for taking this one out. It's also more destructive than the rest. Your best shot if you see this thing? Run in the opposite direction." Mic advises. "Now any other questions?"

A silence spreads between the students and Mic. "Then head to the test area on your cards and get ready."

Ochaco and Midoriya leave the auditorium together, but before they can split to head to their necessary testing areas Ochaco reaches out and gently nudges her friend. "Good luck on the exam!" She says brightly, "I know you'll do awesome." She's grinning, as she says as much, her joy practically radiating from her.

Midoriya smiles, "You too. I know you got this in the bag." He gives her a thumbs up before they are interrupted by Shinso.

"I wanted to apologize for earlier," he says speaking to both of them, but mostly glancing towards Midoriya. "I was under the impression that all wards of the Abbey were Overseers. I thought it strange to see one without a mask, or even being so casual. Sorry for being so dismissive." He reaches out to shake Midoriya's hand. "Hopefully you make it in so we can properly put this behind us."

Midoriya obliges the hand shake, "Of course, apology accepted. Let's hope we all make it in."

Shinso hums in agreement before turning to Ochaco, hand still extended. "I'm sorry for bringing up any negative memories about the incident earlier. I wasn't aware it was a sore subject."

"It's alright," she says shaking his hand. "We all make mistakes. You're forgiven." She smiles, "Let's do our best. Now we gotta hurry or we'll be late. Good luck Shinso. Good luck Izuku!" She says before hurrying off.

When she reaches the testing area she is relieved to find that the proctor for her group is Ectoplasm. At least with him around the exam was unlikely to go too awyr with so many eyes able to help the students and usher them to safety.

"If you could all fill into the square painted on the ground before you, the exam will start in just a moment." He says, observing the students. "I'll be keeping an eye on your progress here, as will the cameras." He goes around handing out small bracelets. "Put these on and if you feel you can't continue fighting press the button." When Ochaco gets hers she sees the small button on it, it is embedded in the symbol of UA on the front. "That will call me and the healing team to your location and we will get you out of the arena safely. It will also cloak you from the robots. The bracelet is single use, and if you use it to attack the robots without being detected you will be disqualified from attending UA. Any questions?"

Ochaco snaps the bracelet on her opposite wrist, the one hiding the bone charm is a bit too big to safely sit with another bracelet.

When no one speaks up Ectoplasm nods. "Alright then, when the buzzer goes off the exam begins. When you hear it sound a second time the exam is over. Any robots destroyed after that point no longer count. Good luck."

Silence follows as the students prepare themselves for the exam. Ochaco takes a few deep breaths, clearing her mind. Planning out her course of action and how she will take care of the robots effectively.

When the buzzer goes off and the wall in front of them descends the students break and split apart. Most opting to head for the central path, Ochaco dives to the left hand path. Keeping a steady pace as she is on the lookout for robots.

Almost immediately one descends towards her. A two-pointer, Ochaco sprints to it her hand slamming into the robot and sending it spinning as it ascends. She feels that weird pulling feeling that comes with her dizzy wave before it passes. Easier to deal with than before.

Her heart races as she connects her fingers with the statement: "Release!" The robot slams into the ground with a jarring rattling and it ends up breaking apart. A decently sized chunk of the robot remains, and Ochaco grabs that and run.

When she encounters another robot she turns the metal in her hands weightless, pressing her pinky on before chucking it into the robots face, much like a discus. As it hurtles towards the robot, she returns the weight to the metal. Much like she expected it keeps its momentum before slamming into the robots screen and the thing goes down.

She pries the chunk of metal free before she continues this process eight more times. In between those robots she ended up needing to get a new chunk of metal, and so she would destroy robots by dropping them. She destroys her thirteenth robot, a three-pointer this time, when a strange sound echoes around the arena. Behind her is one of the nurses ducking into a building where there was a kid currently puking his guts out.

Ahead is two people, one struggling to drag the other who is refusing to move. Ochaco sprints forwards, right as an absolutely massive robot is visible over the skyline. It is heading towards the other end of the arena, and the two are right in the middle of its path. There is no good way for them to get away, and Ochaco knows that the nurse closest is busy.

She arrives by them, and assesses the situation. The boy being drug to safety is blond, and clearly only unconscious. The boy dragging him is rather small compared to the boy he's dragging. Ochaco hurries over, grabbing the blond boys legs.

"That zero-pointer thing is almost here. We gotta get him to the house up ahead. There's a nurse inside." Ochaco says, as the two shuffle along. After a moment the ground shakes, and Ochaco loses her footing for a moment.

The short boy startles, his hands slipping and the blond falls. The short one looks tired, almost overworked. Ochaco realizes she never thought about his own Quirk causing him stress. She activates her quirk and gets the blond to float, quickly grabbing him as best she can. He ends up floating slightly and Ochaco turns to the short one.

"Get inside, I got him." She says, pushing him forwards.

Despite looking exhausted they sprint forwards, until the zero pointer is almost upon them. Ochaco cringes before calling out the the short boy, "Take him and get inside. I'm gonna get this thing taken care of."

She runs off, after making sure there is no one else nearby, grabbing a chunk of wall, stealing its weight. The chunk she goes for has been ripped from the building and is much bigger than the robots. The wave of nausea she gets is almost overwhelming. Her vision swims, and she clenches her jaw to stay standing. She spins and then hurls the wall into the zero-pointers legs. Snapping its weight back right before it connects.

The robot staggers, then falls it's legs severed. It collapses in a space already demolished by the other fights, and lays still the entire front half embedding itself into the ground.

Ochaco stares stunned for a moment before the nausea and dizziness she had been fighting off take over. She falls onto her hands before she pukes onto the ground in front of her.

Just before she can hit the button to call for help a buzzer rings through the arena, a voice announcing the exam is over. One of Ectoplasm's clones is at Ochaco's side, helping her up. She leans on the clone as he escorts her to a nurse's station. It is unnervingly close to where the zero pointer was heading.

Every step she takes sends a new wave of spinning and swaying to the area around her. Her vision is steadily getting more and more blurred as she moves. The exhaustion taking a proper hold now. They finally reach the building, after what feels like hours of walking, but honestly is only less than two minutes.

Ochaco sits down on a cot as one of the staff sees to her. Checking her for any injuries, and then giving her water to help with the quirk overuse. She removes the schools bracelet, setting it off to the side.

Sipping on the water she observes the room. The blond boy is in a cot, mostly ignored. The short kid is being seen to, as he offers advice on why the blond kid is unconscious. Something about quirk strain.

Silently Ochaco realizes her meeting with Midoriya after the exams will be bumped down, she can hardly think about moving without getting dizzy let alone actually leave the room. She lays down, hoping the spinning will stop if she focuses on the bland and uninteresting roof for the building. It works, and Ochaco spends the next fifteen minutes just breathing. Grateful she didn't get too hurt today.


	7. The Vibe Checks Never Stop

Izuku is not having a good day in any sense of the word. The Exams had started off just fine, and he knows he did great with the written exam, but the practical exam worries him. It started when the discussion of the robots came up, and he began planning out how he could use his quirk to be useful, it didn’t help that the blue haired boy from rows up made Izuku feel bad about his mumbling habits.

It doesn’t help that he now feels like he was submerged in ice water. He is waiting for the practical exam to begin and is avoiding getting too many eyes on him. He had already been scolded by the stern boy with blue hair once more after reaching the arena. Izuku tried to apologize to a fellow tester he had bumped into on the way, only to be reprimanded for his attempt.

Now Izuku stands, ready to head into the arena. He has a bracelet on his left hand to call for help when he might need it, but Izuku doubts that it will be necessary. His quirk would keep him safe from any serious harm, unless a wall fell on him. But Izuku even has a back up for that too. He just prefers to not need to use his back up plan, it might complicate things.

Mic shouts to the testers, “GO!” as the walls open before them. For a moment no one moves, and then Mic adds, “Go! You think that a villain would wait? Time’s ticking get moving!”

The crowd shifts, and everyone makes a break for it. Izuku is one of the last to head in, already planning out his trajectory. Against his better judgement he activates Void Gaze, and uses that to find the robots. He keeps his head down as he does so, well aware of just how odd it makes his eyes look. Around him he sees the green glow of other testers, with only a few sprouting the odd yellows of minor injuries. Then he spots the blues of robots. He heads towards a small robot, a one-pointer, and skids in front of it.

It looks at him, before firing off a blast. Izuku tries to activate his quirk, the key point here being tries, as it hits him. Instead of the intended redirect, Izuku feels the shock travel his body, the feeling of being submerged in ice water getting worse when he attempts to pull his quirk up.

He staggers, thrown off balance as he takes the full brunt of the robots attack. His mind races as he struggles to get around, or behind the robot. Get somewhere safe. Someone shatters the robot with a laser beam, and Izuku sees a blond boy hurrying past him.

Confused in his quirks malfunction he pulls up Void Gaze once more, hoping to at least find some robot he can destroy. Or to do anything useful. UA wouldn’t be a very good hero school if they focused only on that whole destroying robots aspect. Maybe Izuku could worm his way in with saving others?

It’s worth a shot at least.

He spots a form, bright green in every sense of the word, but sandwiched between two robots. A three-pointer and a one-pointer. The figure hasn’t noticed the three-pointer yet.

Izuku darts under the robot, hoping to divert its attention, when he feels it charge up a blast. “Look out!” He snaps, noticing the strict boy with blue hair from earlier not even turn. Izuku slams into him, knocking the two down to the floor just in time for the one-pointer to shatter with the beam hitting it. Izuku sits up, opening his mouth to ask a question when the blue haired boy interrupts him.

“What are you-?” the blue haired boy is cut off as the three-pointer hits Izuku mere seconds after its first shot.

Izuku yelps in pain, feeling strange pins and needles feeling cover him for a moment. It hurts more when the second blast connects to him. He hits the ground, his quirk refusing to respond when he tries to call it up to protect him.

“Break that thing!” He hisses out, as a third blast hits him. The wave of pins and needles gives way to an absurdly cold feeling, and he struggles to even push himself up. “Aim for its eye, distract it, something at least!”

The other boy complies, activating his jet legs and rushing past the three-pointer, before flipping around and kicking in its eye when it follows him.

Izuku regains his composure, standing up and breathing a bit heavier now. His own breaths grate in his ears, but he forces himself to ignore that for now.

“Are you OK?” he asks the blue-haired boy. “That thing almost got the drop on you.”

“I think the better question is are you OK? You got hit three times in a row!”

Izuku scowls, leaning on a wall. “It takes more than that to stop me. But they weren’t lying when they said the robots would take their toll for too many strikes.” He rubs his eyes, feeling tiredness creep in on him. It didn’t help that he’s using his mark far more frequently than should. “Still, I gotta keep moving. Other’s need help too.”

Before he hurries off he turns back, “Oh, I’m Midoriya Izuku by the way. I hope to see you in UA…” He leaves the name part out intentionally.

“Iida Tenya, and I hope to see you as well Midoriya. Good luck.” And they go their separate ways, Izuku charging after the yellowest glows when he pulls up Void Gaze. All the reds and oranges are within the nurse areas, and he doesn’t have to worry about the greens, unless necessary.

He pulls people from under unstable buildings, just after a robot smashes the corners into rubble, and yanks people out of blast zones before they have a chance to get hit. More often than he likes, Izuku ends up, begrudgingly he might add, tanking a hit for distracted students, before yelling at them to get rid of the problem.

Izuku is staggering his way through the back end of the arena, with three minutes left, ready to just give up completely when he hears a commotion behind him. Void Gaze still active from when he pulled it up last, he spots an absolutely massive robot. And a figure swathed in red running it. They are mere meters from him, when someone fires an explosion at the robot. The red figure is right in its way.

He acts without thinking, begging for his quirk to work, as he shoves the girl, an invisible girl, out of the way, and sends her rolling. The explosion connects, and the feeling of cold covers Izuku completely. But no pain comes from the explosion.

He doesn’t feel the redirect either, instead feeling a strange tingling across his skin, unlike the blasts from the robots. But Izuku doesn’t think, the robot, the zero-pointer he assumes, is still heading to where the invisible girl has fallen. In a last ditch effort, he uses the last thing he wanted, calling to his mark. Pulling up Shadowrend, the only power amplified by his quirk, the only flashy one he dares use without fear of getting caught.

He feels the exhaustion temporarily leave him, as the tingling gets worse, before he can see the shadows licking his skin. He rips his way up the zero-pointer, ripping chunks off its legs as he leaves gouges in it. Izuku desperately hopes this works, a nurse is dragging the girl off, as he rips his way up and he doesn’t stop to consider the threat is gone. Others are going to be in this things path.

He reaches its eye, or eye case, if it can be considered that, and then digs his way into the robots head. Ripping the circuitry apart with a strength he shouldn’t have. Leaving small bursts of explosive crackles as he does so.

The robot whirs off, before falling backwards. Izuku is flung off as the effects Shadowrend wear off, and he is falling too. At a much faster rate than expected. He is facing the ground, when he sees a net of vines forming under him. And then someone launches off a nearby building. Catching him, and twisting so they are closest to the ground. He hardly has a chance to panic before a hand wraps around his wrist.

"How do you use your quirk?" The person catching him asks.

"Disperse the energy, focus on channeling it to another spot. Outwards helps, localizing to one spot also works." Izuku stammers, black spots threatening the edges of his vision.

The person holding him turns to steel, and then they hit the vines. They slow the fall significantly, and Izuku feels the barest of the effect of hitting anything with such force. The duo hits the ground, at barely the rate of a jump.

The person who turned to steel stands and let's go of Izuku, who promptly loses feeling in his legs and hits the ground in exhaustion.

"Oh that doesn't look good at all." A female says, walking over.

Overhead they hear a voice announce, “The exam is now over!”

Izuku huffs, from his position lying on the ground. “Is that girl, the one with the invisibility quirk safe?” he asks, hoping one of the two know who he is talking about.

“She is fine, one of the healing staff pulled her away from the robot.” A new voice says, as Izuku spots another person arriving, a short woman. The Youthful Hero: Recovery Girl. “I think we have you to thank for that. Are you injured anywhere?”

Izuku shakes his head, “Just tired.” he says as he props himself up on his elbows. “Really tired, it seems.” he adds, after attempting to pull himself into a sitting position and failing at it.

Recovery Girl hands him some fruit gummies. “These should help,” Izuku takes them while propped on one arm. After that is done Recovery Girl turns to the other two and examines them for injuries.

Izuku half-heartedly eats the gummies. It isn't that he's bored, he just wants to sink into the ground and sleep for a month he's so tired. He feels a bit of energy return to him, not as much as he would get from one of the elixir's to restore his energy, but enough for Izuku to stand on shaky legs.

He turns to his two saviors. "I never got a chance to say, so thanks. Not sure what would have happened if you weren't able to catch me."

The blond boy looks over excited at this. "You're very welcome. Who would we be if we left a prospective hero to die?" He nudges the girl gently.

"You're welcome. It would be unbecoming of me to have let you fall to your death."

Izuku feels the blood drain from his face a bit at that. "Yeah…" he scratches at the back of his head, slightly unnerved by her blatant honesty. "Anyways, I'm Midoriya Izuku, it's been nice to meet you two. Hopefully I can see you in the hero course." He says, a broad grin on his face.

"Hopefully, I don’t see how you wouldn’t. It’d be stupid for the school to ignore someone so blatantly heroic.” He says, barely hidden annoyance lacing his voice. I'm Monoma Neito." The boy introduces. He offers out a hand to Izuku.

The girl nods sagely, "Shiozaki Ibara." Her name sounds familiar, and he notices that she has very distinctive hair full of vines. They remind him of one of the Oracular Order he met. "I look forward to seeing you both in the hero course. Are both of you leaving?" She turns directly to Izuku now. "Or would you prefer to stay at a nurse station for now?"

Izuku shakes his head, "I need to find my friend. She was in a different testing zone. Gotta make sure she's fine."

Monoma watches Izuku, "You've practically fallen seven times since you stood up a few minutes ago. At least let us get you there."

Izuku doesn't argue, and walks between the two as they head towards the entrance for the exam.

"Maybe one of the nurses knows where she is?" Shiozaki advises, "We can ask and find her from there. Or send her your way." She adds, looking at Izuku with a critical eye.

"That actually sounds like a good plan." He relents, and the trio head towards the infirmary at UA. Once there Izuku is pulled into a bed with a stern word from a nurse.

"Why would you be moving when you are so tired? Surely you don't have a death wish right?" She scolds, "Rest for the day. You'll need to leave when the rest of the practical exams finish, but we can keep you for now."

Izuku cringes, "I was actually going to try and find my friend, her test would have just finished as well. I can get home just fine." He says, not wanting to fall asleep here.

"Absolutely not! Tell me your friend's name, I can send someone to find her." The nurse says.

"I can locate her for you, I did offer. I doubt it's a difficult venture." Shiozaki offers, Monoma is nowhere to be seen.

"See!" The nurse says, "Now stay put."

Izuku sighs, "Okay, I get it. Her name is Uraraka Ochaco. She was in test zone C."

"Oh, she's here. Overworked herself, poor girl. She's sleeping now, something you should be doing as well."

"I'm fine, really." He tries to justify. "I just overworked my quirk."

"Midoriya, quirk strain is no joke. Listen to the nurse." Shiozaki warns, "It won't be the end of the world."

Izuku doesn't argue, simply falls flat against the pillows on his bed. "I guess I'll just be here then. Thank you again Shiozaki. If you see Monoma let him know as well. Please?"

"Of course. Goodbye Midoriya." And with that Izuku is left alone. A curtain covers the corner of the room he is in, and Izuku is left in silence.

Against his will he sleeps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure how much longer chapters are going to come out every two weeks. But I am actually planning on posting glimpses into the new chapters over on my [Tumblr](https://greenelectricangels.tumblr.com/) every now and then from now on, whether that just be chapter titles or actually snippets from chapters. I'll also answer questions and stuff like that as well if you want, so go check it out.


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